His words poured forth in a fiery stream, kindling the hearts, and stirring at once the devotion and the anger of his listeners.
He told of the holy places, he spoke of the scenes of Holy Writ, which had there been enacted; and then he depicted the men who had died for them.

He told of the knights and men-at-arms, each of whom proved himself again and again a match for a score of infidels.

He spoke of the holy women, who, fearlessly and bravely, as the knights themselves, had borne their share in the horrors of the siege and in the terrible times which had preceded it.
He told them that this misfortune had befallen Christianity because of the lukewarmness which had come upon them.
"What profited it," he asked, "if the few knights who remained to defend the holy sepulchre were heroes?
A few heroes cannot withstand an army.

If Christendom after making a mighty effort to capture the holy sepulchre had not fallen away, the conquest which had been made with so vast an expenditure of blood would not have been lost.

This is a work in which no mere passing fervour will avail; bravery at first, endurance afterwards, are needed.